Media Nox

Summary: Hunter is cocky, cynical, and careless. His two weaknessess are lack of trust and writing. When his mother encourages him to do something other than writing, he drives to a nearby state park for some peace and quiet. However, when darkness closes in around him, Hunter finds himself lost. Frustrated and tired, he decides to look for it in the morning when the sun is up. In the dead of night, Hunter wakes up to unfamiliar voices. One is a beautiful voice of a woman and the other is the voice of a hateful man who wants nothing to do with Hunter. The man and woman turn him into something he thought never was possible. Hunter is then forced to endure a new life, a new set of values, a new family, and a new diet. He then comes in contact with the werewolves of La Push and meets Jacob. After he eventually comes to terms with himself, a massive responsibility is forced on his shoulders that changes him…hopefully, for the better. Most characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. IRIS!!! Beautiful banner, I owe you a high five and maybe a surprise... ;)

Notes:
Disclaimer: pretty much, all of these heart-melting characters belong to that Stephenie Meyer chick. Except for some choice additions... P.S. Is there any way I can bribe you guys to review more?

7. Hunting

The family was forced to drag me into the car. Carlisle continued about a better life and no need to harm people, or something along those lines. The way he spoke reminded me of the pastor who preached at a church that I attended when I was younger. My mother stopped going after my father’s funeral. She said she didn’t like the way the pastor harped about death and Hell while she was trying to come to terms. Edward sat in the back of the Jeep with Jasper crammed between us. Emmett did drive, like he said, and Rosalie sat in the passenger’s seat.

Edward probed my mind continuously.

Are you alright?

Although I didn’t understand fully how he was able to get inside of my head, I did understand one thing. I didn’t like it.

Could you at least try to stay out of my head? It’s not something I can choose. Then fake it.

I glowered at Edward as the group talked to each other and once in a while offered to include me in their conversations. Emmett pestered me for details about my family now and then, but Jasper helped squash those questions for me. Grateful, I did allow Emmett the pleasure of me answering some harmless questions. Such as where I lived before and what color my toothbrush was. But I couldn’t stop thinking of my family that I left behind.

It had been three months already and I was functioning as if they never existed.

We understand, Hunter. Edward’s voice filled the void inside my head. You have no idea how similar we are to each other.I snarled. Shove it. Crude language. Not something I expected from a talented writer. Talented is hardly the word.

I turned my body away from him and stared out of the window. The rest of the drive was uneventful. Carefully, I tried my best to keep my mind blank. The last thing I wanted was for Edward to inform them of my thoughts later on. The others chatted semi-casually, but it didn’t fool me at all. They were more than aware of my presence and my silence. I almost felt sorry for being such a burden to them, but only a little. The only thing I knew about them was that they shredded Joseph and Edward couldn’t help but get inside my head. I liked them, really. They were a decent, haphazard family. Perhaps thrown together by fate, perhaps by choice. Either way, they made a functioning family that I was jealous of. Before I was fully aware of it, the Jeep stopped and everyone hopped out. I sat still for a moment, vaguely hoping they would forget me.

Coming? Edward asked.

Sure.

We hiked for three or four hours under the cover of trees. I could smell the crisp air and grumpy grizzly bears just awaking from hibernation. Our group split up silently. Emmett and Rosalie went west, Edward went by himself towards the east, and Jasper took my north. We hiked in silence. Jasper was searching for something that I wasn’t sure of. I knew that they didn’t hunt humans and Emmett was excited to hunt bears…but maybe they were just joking.

The strong smell of a sweaty, filthy animal came to my attention. I looked up into Jasper’s cautiously smiling face and he motioned to a large hole dug in the ground. Peering closer, I saw it was a wolf den. Temporary panic seized me but then I became utterly calm, on no account of my own. I looked over at Jasper’s knowing eyes again and then back to the den. A deep growling erupted from beneath the ground and a fat beast crawled out from the earth. It snarled, baring its teeth, and darted closer when it saw that I would not back away. I turned to Jasper.

“You can’t be serious,” I scoffed.

Jasper said nothing. He pounced on the wolf and wrestled with it briefly. Then, after only half a second, he had it pinned down. The animal whined but Jasper wouldn’t set it free. Instead, he tore open the wolf’s neck and leapt backwards.

My reasoning failed me and my mind went blank.

I came to my senses moments later to find my face smeared with blood and the wolf rigid at my feet. Jasper was standing a short distance away, keeping watch. I wiped the red smears off of my face and inhaled deeply. Usually after I fed I felt guilty and began to sulk. However, now I didn’t feel guilty at all. It was just a wolf, after all. For the first time in months, I grinned.

Jasper grinned back.

“Glad you came?” he asked, now by my side and leading me more north.

I nodded. “You have no idea.”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” he replied. Ignoring this comment, I decided that now would be the best time to relieve my curiosity. The wolf emerging from its den made me think back to last night when Anna had been overtaken by werewolves. There was no doubt in my mind that these vampires had come in contact with them or at least knew about them. After all, it would be extremely difficult to have werewolves for neighbors and not notice.

“Hey, Jasper?”

“Mmhhmm?”

I couldn’t find the words to say, so I chickened out. “Where are we going?”

Jasper seemed just as surprised as I was that I would say something stupid like that. “Well, we’re not done hunting.”

“Oh.”

The silence carried on for a few more moments.

“What’s your real question?” Jasper asked suddenly.

I was taken aback. “What?”

“You’re not as hard to read as I thought you were, but I assumed you’d be a better liar,” he smirked. “So, honestly, what’s on your mind?”

“You’re not going to pull an Edward and find out for yourself?” I said sarcastically.

Jasper laughed. “Edward is the only one I know of who can really do that.”

I grunted in agreement. “Anyways, I was wondering about…the werewolves.”

Jasper looked at me through the corner of his eye. “The werewolves? When did you run into them?”

“Last night.” I inhaled before letting my story out. It was still hard for me to open up to an almost-stranger. “Joseph, Anna, and I were just passing through their territory and they attacked. I don’t know how they knew we were there…but they got Anna…” I stopped and inhaled. Jasper seemed to feel that I needed his arm around my shoulder. As right as he was, I was sure that I could easily survive without it. Anna was the one who changed me and I could never find it inside of myself to forgive her. Shrugging off Jasper’s arm, I continued. “They were huge, you know? Massive…and I noticed something.” I stopped and turned my whole body to face Jasper. “They had the personalities and intelligences of humans, Jasper.”

Jasper stood still, quiet, and evaluated my expression.

“They seem human because they are human, Hunter,” he said, finally.

Jolting backwards, I swore loudly.

There was some part of me that wanted them to stay the beasts that I saw them as. I wanted them to be lesser than me to some extent. As condemned as I was, I wanted to have the knowledge that there was someone, or something, who was a rung below me on the ladder to the eternities. They were simple animals, weren’t they? Clever animals with human attributes, right? However, I knew Jasper wouldn’t lie to me. I also knew that I had to see for myself exactly what he meant.